Articles of clothing and single use garments are commonly used in a variety of areas such as athletic and active wear, surgical and medical applications, waste or hazardous material handling, and "throw-away" bathing suits or undergarments. Single use garments are those which are worn or used by an individual once, or a limited number of times, and then discarded. Both single use garments and other articles of clothing should be inexpensive to manufacture while remaining comfortable for the wearer. Comfort is a prime consideration for articles of clothing, but the cost of manufacturing single use items and other articles of clothing is also an important criteria in that increased costs can prove to be prohibitive to the successful commercialization of such a product.
Comfort is an important criteria in that articles of clothing are very often worn or used directly in contact with the individual's skin or body. Comfortable articles of clothing should be both soft, so as not to irritate the skin of a wearer, and be stretchable and recoverable, so as not to constrain or bind during movement by the wearer. Stretchability and recoverability are particularly desirable for active and athletic wear so that the wearer is not constrained or restricted and the fabric does not rip or bind during wear and/or movement.
As a result of the requirements of comfort and economy, nonwoven thermoplastic films are commonly used in the production of disposable absorbent articles such as diapers, catamenial pads, and incontinent articles. To achieve the desired qualities, thermoplastic films are often laminated or bonded to other nonwoven materials.
Processes of bonding nonwoven fibrous webs to thermoplastic films have been known for sometime. Additionally, methods for extrusion laminating of thermoplastic films to unstretched nonwoven webs are well-known in the art. Extrusion lamination of unstretched nonwoven webs entails stretching extruded polymeric films prior to laminating with unstretched nonwoven fibrous webs at the nips of a pressure roller. Other methods of extrusion lamination include co-extruding multiple polymeric films with unstretched nonwoven webs at the pressure roller nips. One method of improving the bonding between nonwoven fibers and thermoplastic films is to preform the nonwoven polymeric fiber materials prior to extrusion lamination with the thermoplastic films.
It has also been known to stretch nonwoven fibrous webs using intermeshing rollers to reduce the weight of the nonwoven sheet for use in disposable or single use articles. Methods of stretching nonwoven fibrous webs include incremental cross direction or machine direction stretching with a pair of interdigitating rollers to strengthen and soften the nonwoven webs and thereby provide a more desirable material for single use articles. Techniques for bonding nonwoven fibrous webs to thermoplastic films and patents directed thereto are fully disclosed in the above identified application, Ser. No. 08/104,791, filed Aug. 11, 1993, which is incorporated herein by reference. However, even though it is known to bond nonwoven fibrous webs to thermoplastic films to produce a more desirable laminate, the films up to now have been bonded to only limited portions of the web resulting in an improved laminate for only a patch or discrete area of the product.
There is a continuing need for improved laminates of nonwoven fibrous substrates in plastic films that provide sufficient qualities such as softness, comfort, and economical manufacturing for use in articles of clothing. It would be very desirable to further improve the properties of such laminates and to expand their utility in articles of clothing and other useful products to provide the properties of stretchability and recoverability.